


Winterborn First Chapter Promo

by idigam



Category: Original Work
Genre: Cannibalism, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Mythology - Freeform, Police Procedural, Supernatural Elements, Wendigo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-16
Updated: 2019-04-16
Packaged: 2020-01-14 21:17:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18484540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idigam/pseuds/idigam
Summary: This is a bit of a story I've been working on off and on for two years. I figure I'll put it up for my readers who are curious.





	Winterborn First Chapter Promo

On a grassy hilltop in the Rockies two friends lie relaxing, the blue sky and cool breeze makes it picturesque. The blond has his hands behind his head, “nothing better than this.” The brunette stares off into the distance, the sky clouding over slightly, “hey Silas, can I ask ya something?”

The blond looks over holding his bangs out of his face, “as long as it’s not a stupid question.” His friend replies, “It’s not.” Silas shrugs “go nuts.” His friend turns to reveal his half eaten face, the sky is a dark gray and it begins snowing heavily, “why’d you do it?”

Silas awakens with a start on an empty train; the automated voice announces “now arriving at Duluth Station.” “Right, good,” Silas says to no one in particular; “just a bad dream.” Calming his nerves and wiping the bit of drool from his lips Silas stands up, grabs his backpack and puts his head-phones in. The train doors open on the next new city between him and home.

Silas continues down the way, along the shores of Superior past small shops and closed docks. A collection of small boats from the late summer crowd showed these were closed merely for the day and thus not a workable place to stay. Silas was about to give up and go back to the train station when something caught his attention. A smell like cooking steak, it made his stomach howl, and his mouth water. Following his nose along the deserted avenues he advances with the singular purpose of the starving.  
Silas rounds a corner until he came upon an alley where the smell pours out in waves, slumped at the end of the alley is a body. Blood smeared the wall where the nameless person had collapsed. Silas reaches out, pulls back, then worrying his lip, scarred from similar overzealous actions, seems to come to a decision. He opens his mouth again displaying a set of sharp inhuman teeth. Silas lunges forward.

At a crime scene Detective Alex DeWolf is examining his murder scene with annoyance; Patrick is finishing up the preliminaries on the body before calling over one of his minions to take it to county general. “Witness statements are pretty clear; two morons get into it over something or other and start fighting. They both pull knives and then make my life more miserable by dropping a dead body’s worth of paper-work in my lap.”

Patrick makes an amused noise, which only annoys the detective further, though it’s likely to be whichever beat cop crosses his path first that’ll get the brunt of it. One does not simply piss-off one’s chief coroner because one is having a piss-poor evening after all. “Likely two dead bodies’ worth of paperwork, given the blood trail;” DeWolf’s frown deepens noticeably.

“Oh don’t make that face, maybe you’ll get lucky and vic number two is in a hospital right now and they’re going to end up with most of it. Besides it’s not like I won’t have to do my fair share here, I’ll be opening them up after all.” Patrick’s sheer pleasant nonchalance in the face of the next six hours being wrist deep in a chest cavity is the most irritating thing about the whole affair. Granted all coroners are a little off, but Patrick’s complete mastery of civility in the face of cleaning up after human horror would move Hannibal Lector to tears. A fact that DeWolf informs him of. Patrick chuckles and stands up, “so you’ve said.”

A look crosses Patrick’s face a strange mixture of intrigue, annoyance, and concern that DeWolf would find more comforting (it being a reasonable human response coming from the old man) if it didn’t always precede some weird shit.

“Would you coordinate the moving of the body? I would like to examine something. It may present a ‘Night Watch’ complication to the case.” DeWolf looks at his companion in complete bewilderment before forcing his face into a look of aggravation so complete that one would not expect the human face, with its limits of flesh and bone, to be capable of. He’s also learned to let Patrick work in these cases. “I hate you tonight, I hope you know that.” Patrick is already walking down the street; at least DeWolf had an excuse to get very shouty which always made him feel better.

The nagging feeling at the back of Patrick Windrunner’s mind was getting stronger, it was a feeling he’d only gotten a few times in his long life; and it always preceded a major complication. He rounded the corner of an alley and was confronted with a truly unpleasant sight. A figure was hunched over the second body they were sure to find. It was an awful parody of human proportions, too long, too thin; with gray almost frost bitten skin and white hair. As soon as he rounded the corner the thing looked up at him and let out a low, guttural growl. It stood up tearing a piece out of the body, swallowing it and then running an inhumanly long tongue across it’s chin to catch the blood dribbling down its front. It made a lunge for Patrick; he released enough of his true self to twist the shadow cast by the cold street lights. The thing paused long enough for Patrick to bring up a syringe filled with a cocktail of his own design, and jam it into the creature’s neck. It howled but the substance worked fast and the thing was already fumbling, Patrick reached into its form and drew out the humanity, still close to the surface. He smiled and let the lanky blond teen fall at his feet out cold. DeWolf came charging around the corner as Patrick finished draping his coat over the kid, “thankfully I don’t think there’s any Night Watch element to this beyond simple scene contamination, but I won’t know for sure until I have few hours alone with a computer linked up to the Zodd network.” DeWolf looks at the kid then up at his colleague, “once you get what you need, you explain.” It’s not a question, Patrick smiles easily, “business as usual then?”

Nearly a full day later Patrick is standing outside the boy’s hospital room, an IV of nutrients running into his arms, hypothermia and malnutrition his medical file says, that’s a state that won’t really change. The kid’s glamour must be strong for the machines to register his heartbeat, a good thing since that would have been awkward to deal with. DeWolf stalks up to him with a coffee, freshly shaven and he’s at least gotten a nap. “Calum get you to bed at reasonable hour, or did he make sure you at least got a nap in before you got here?” Patrick asks glancing up from the files in his hands for only a moment. DeWolf takes a long slow sip of his coffee and flips Patrick off. “It was either that or I shoot you the first time you make a smart quip.” Patrick’s face is set in a neutral expression “I shall have to send him a thank you card and flowers then,” he responds distractedly.

“So what, the little runaway saw what tore up vic number two and he’s been catatonic since?” Patrick mulls over something, DeWolf knows he holds stuff back, personal stuff, and tribal stuff. “Remember the case from the Iron Range two years back.” DeWolf shudders, “yeah I remember, explains why one of the bodies was used as a chew-toy, but not why the kid’s still alive.” Patrick’s expression quirks into a wry smile, “it’s no-one’s fault but yours that you get too much of your information from television.” DeWolf turns bright red and mumbles into his cup, “I shot it with a flare gun that should have done something.” Patrick chuckles, “oh it did something, it made it mad. Anyway,” he hands the files to DeWolf, it’s a missing person file and an attached newspaper article. “He didn’t survive the scavenger, he is the scavenger.” DeWolf looks over it the article, the missing kid was part of a class trip trapped under an avalanche for nearly a week. “Jesus, he looks human though?” Patrick shakes his head “it’s perfectly within their range of powers, the one we dealt with had been trapped underground for almost ninety years, do you really expect it to have been sane?” DeWolf is quiet at this, “what do we do? I don’t feel right killing a fifteen year old kid.” Patrick frowns, “you may not have to, they’re intelligent, able to deduce right from wrong, I imagine this kid left to avoid losing control around the people he cares about. Not knowing what he’s become.”

DeWolf is looking at his old friend and colleague hard now, “you said the craving they feel is inescapable, like a drug addiction, one they can never quit?” Patrick nods “I did, and it is, however, the flesh they crave needn’t be alive.” DeWolf rounds on him “what you are proposing is wildly illegal, desecration, and an abuse of your position,” he hisses. Patrick returns his glare eyes blazing “our legal options are extremely limited, as in they are limited to getting him home or to a shelter, which will result in him losing control and killing people. He needs to be taught what he is and given the means to handle it. Or he needs to be put down. I may have access to the Zodd database but you’re the Night Watchman here, it’s your call. Take responsibility and make it.” DeWolf looks in at the kid, monster or no, he’s just a kid, he sighs, “You’re asking me to look the other way to a genuinely grotesque type of law breaking. And you’re asking me to leave you alone with a very dangerous class of entity.” Patrick cocks an eyebrow, “I can take care of myself just fine.” DeWolf deadpans right back at him “I know, that doesn’t mean I’m not concerned, especially given how blasé you are about this.” Patrick turns back to the room’s window, “I’ve already considered the full ramifications of this, and I’ll need you to apply for the paperwork from the Zoddites who can provide it.” DeWolf walks away mumbling, “Yeah, yeah, I’ll be keeping an eye on him though.”

Patrick smirks at the detectives retreating back, his arms crossed as he taps his chin thoughtfully. “You’re gonna have a tough time kiddo.” The figure in the glass turns to look at him with bleary half focused eyes, Patrick smiles and waves, “please stay calm and human it’d be very awkward to have you shift right here right now.” The eyes look suddenly very awake, strong glamor and sharp senses apparently.


End file.
